EU health ministers want to fund drug shortages plans with cash from Europe’s new defense strategy, they outline in an open letter published Sunday.
The letter, drawn up by Belgium and signed by 11 health ministers including from Germany, Spain and Portugal, says EU defense funding should be used to finance the Critical Medicines Act, which the European Commission will present on Tuesday.
“Part of its funding should be embedded in broader EU defence spending plans, including the financial mechanisms in the new defence package,” they said, adding: “After all without essential medicines, Europe’s defense capabilities are compromised.”
Europe is largely dependent on manufacturers in Asia for its supplies of everyday medicines. The Commission has promised to address the region’s vulnerability with new legislation within 100 days of the new mandate. Ministers want to make sure Europe’s plan to tackle shortages is as comprehensive as possible — with the money available to back it up.
“Europe can no longer afford to treat medicine security as a secondary issue. The Critical Medicines Act must be expanded into an effective, full-scale strategic programme, backed by EU defence funding, to secure the continent’s strategic autonomy,” the letter said. “Anything less would be a grave miscalculation—one that could turn our dependence for critical medicines into the Achilles’ heel of Europe’s security,” it added.
European governments want to radically boost weapons, cyber and air defense spending by up to €800 billion as part of a rearmament drive. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that governments should be able to increase national spending on defense without being hampered by EU rules, while also promising €150 billion of loans as part of the ReArm Europe Plan. Even Germany, the fiscal policeman of Europe, wants to bin its strict spending limits to enable greater military spending.
The letter states that “security has now become the main priority of European leaders. This security paradigm should encompass healthcare systems and pharmaceuticals.” Not only are medicines vital for citizens health, “but also for military and emergency scenarios.”
Ministers cited the United States’ Defense Production Act, which designates pharmaceutical supply chains as a national security issue, as an example to follow. It allows the government to direct investment to boost domestic medicine production and issue priority contracts that put government orders first.
“In a similar vein, the European Commission must accelerate efforts to map and assess vulnerabilities within the supply chains of these strategic critical medicines. If weaknesses are identified, Europe must be able to act decisively and ramp up domestic production where possible,” the ministers wrote.
Europe has deprioritized health spending since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. A revision of the 2021-27 budget last year took almost €1 billion out of the EU4Health program, which now has an allocation of €4.4 billion over the period.
